Date:10/04/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/04/10/stories/2006041001060600.htm

Back `India is a key focus for us'

V. Sajeev Kumar

It's where our customers are telling us we need to be in coming years, so we will continue to look for investment opportunities in India.

MR GANESH RAJ, Senior Vice-President (Indian Subcontinent), Dubai Port World.

Mr Ganesh Raj, Senior Vice-President (Indian Subcontinent), Dubai Port World, feels that the investments in port related infrastructure in the country are going to increase benefiting Indian economy a lot. He spoke to Business Line on port-related infrastructure in India, and DPW's plans for the country.

Excerpts from the interview:

How do view the state of India's port related infrastructure?

Ensuring competition to give shippers choice and promote efficiency is something the Government understands clearly. Note the recent action of the Prime Minister's Office in moving to overcome security concerns and clearing Hutchison Port Holdings, the world's largest terminal operator, to bid for concessions in India, and also Taiwan's Evergreen.

This effectively means the top port operators in the world can compete for a presence in India.

There are or will be sufficient terminal operators in these ports to provide a competitive environment. For instance, the Mumbai Port cluster has two state-operated facilities at Nhava Sheva and Mumbai, and private, Danish company APM Terminals, at a third container terminal facility. Hutchison and Evergreen could also compete aggressively for Mumbai's offshore container terminal as well as JNPT 4 and 5.

In addition the tariffs are regulated by the government and so the monopolistic behaviour is further discouraged.

What is your share of container handling in India? What kind of projections do you expect?

Earlier, we had a very small market share. P&O Ports has been the market leader in India because of its long history. According to Drewry Shipping Consultants, the top four private terminal operators in South Asia (which includes Pakistan and Sri Lanka — P&O Ports, APM Terminals, Hutchison and PSA — moved 56.5 per cent of the estimated 2004 throughput of 8.15 million TEUs, with P&O Ports accounting for more than 40 per cent of that. Drewry's is forecasting a throughput of 14.2 million TEU by 2010 — an average increase of 9 per cent. We think that is reasonably accurate.

How are your Kochi operations? Is the business growth as expected?

We are pleased with the developments at Kochi. It has all the ingredients to be a model government-private partnership.

Any new plans for India? Are you interested in acquiring new terminals here?

India is a key focus for us. It's where our customers are telling us we need to be in coming years, so we will continue to look for investment opportunities here.

There is a boom in container trade worldwide. What if there is a downturn in business, as some people predict?

Some may be predicting a downturn in the shipping cycle this year with a gap between supply and demand causing a drop in rates as more vessel tonnage comes on line. But container trade overall continues to grow at a very rapid pace, driven by globalisation and, over time in the future, emerging consumer markets.